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West appears to be losing a close reelection fight but is contesting the results.

The party also had hoped that Mia Love, a black woman now serving as mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, would win her congressional race, but she trails her Democratic opponent by 2,600 votes. News reports said she is holding out hope because about 64,000 absentee and mail-in ballots will be counted on Tuesday.

“The fog is still burning off outside,” Scott said of the Election Day results, “but there seems to be a clear and present danger that I will be the only one left.”

If that’s the case, Scott said he expects to face more scrutiny as Congress’s sole black Republican, “but in the end, my goal has always been to represent everybody and not just somebody specifically.”

Scott said he thinks voters made two compelling but conflicting statements. “In my opinion, they did not vote for more government,” he said. “They did vote for someone who they believed could feel their pain. It underscores the old lesson — people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

“I believe we were right on the issues, most consistently right,” but he added, “perhaps we were wrong on the level of passion that could be sensed in connecting with voters.”

Asked what his role might be, Scott said, “I didn’t work much with the [Republican National Committee]. I didn’t get a call from the RNC this year, so I’m not sure what the Republicans’ strategy will be from the national perspective.” Scott said what will be important is for Republicans to connect with voters “of all backgrounds.”

Glenn McCall, South Carolina’s first black RNC member, said he is proud of Scott, and Scott’s presence will encourage others.

But McCall said it doesn’t fall only to Scott to expand the party’s appeal to minorities.

“It’s not just him or those who are in leadership roles,” he said. “We continuously and will continue to do even more to take our message to people of color.

“The main thing to me is that we do have a strong bench of folks of color that are willing to run for public office, public service,” McCall said. “I think we’ll continue to see that, and hopefully they will be successful.”

Some said the party’s message must change before it will make any meaningful inroads into the African-American vote.

College of Charleston history professor Bernard Powers said he is not surprised that Scott most likely will be the only black Republican in the House because there have been so few in recent decades.

“This is, to me, reflective of the party’s constituency, racially,” he said, adding that was the Republican Party’s strategy since even before President Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy. In the late 1960s, Nixon capitalized on Southern white voters’ displeasure with Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s championing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Powers said he believes most black voters gave Vice President Joe Biden a pass for his campaign trail gaffe when he spoke to a racially mixed audience in Virginia and said of the Republican Party, “they’re going to put y’all back in chains.”

“The reality is black folks weren’t disturbed by that, not really,” he said, “because black people have said that jokingly themselves.”

Robert Behre writes for The Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier, which partnered with POLITICO to cover the 2012 elections.

Readers' Comments (28)

We could use several hundred of the Tim Scott's. A true, proven leader who makes us all proud. As a side note what is it that these clowns can't get the ballot all counted until weeks later? Mia Love may just make it!

The Democrats target black Republicans, because they see them as a particularly worrisome threat.

From using unnamed sources to destroy Herman Cain, to pouring millions of dollars into campaigns to defeat people like West and Love, the Democrats know that it's something they MUST do, or run the risk of having their base discover that the Democrat Party prefers to have illegal aliens taking their jobs, their children continually subjected to genocide, and their futures gutted by eternal enslavement to government programs..........

And let's not forget the wonderful school systems the Democrats have created for their children in the major cities, so that they can warehouse their children, while insuring they never receive the skills needed to succeed..............

And let's not forget the wonderful school systems the Democrats have created for their children in the major cities, so that they can warehouse their children, while insuring they never receive the skills needed to succeed..............

Who is callous and stupid enough to think that people intentionally set up schools to underperform?

I've been telling him for weeks now that I no longer read his lame opinions, based on regurgitated talking points that he never supports, any yet, he keeps trolling away!

I'm sure he's killed another string somewhere, so he's back to having his nose up my azz, desperately hoping I'll respond to his stupidity..........

Of course, without even reading his garbage I already know he's put words in my mouth, and hasn't posted the first link to support anything he says, so he's really a sad joke not even worth reading...........

I've told him so often, but you know how it is, trolls gotta' troll.............

Now, watch him be unable to to refrain from responding to anything I post..............

Even after I've told him over and over again what a sad joke he is..........

Here, check the dates on these, then have another good laugh at his expense...................

wayknow Member Since: Nov. 29, 2009 Party: Conservative

#671 Nov. 10, 2012 - 12:09 AM EST Hugh Johnson

Maybe you don't get it, so let me say it again.

I don't read your stuff anymore, because it's all opinion based, predictable, and not supported by any facts besides "outtamyazz.com......"

There's a definition for folks like you.........

Let me post it for you..............

troll

(v.) (1) To deliberately post derogatory or inflammatory comments to a community forum, chat room, newsgroup and/or a blog in order to bait other users into responding.

When trolls are ignored they step up their attacks, desperately seeking the attention they crave. Their messages become

What a fool. Scott belongs to a party that hates him. Hey Tim, you need to read up on the "Southern Strategy". Better yet, listen to one Rush Limbaugh show to understand what the GOP represents.

Are you really that stupid?

The Republicans almost NOMINATED a black guy in the primaries..........

The DEMOCRATS had all they could do to destroy the guy as a candidate...............

Now I KNOW you like that southern strategy fantasy, but REALITY is, when the most vile and fouly racist party in American history was finally thrown out of power in the south, the lynchings stopped, and people could sit, eat, and sleep with who they wanted..........

And those things never returned.........

Evidently, the only people who HATED anyone were Democrats, and I noticed in the southern Democrat primaries THIS year, 40% of the southern Democrats voted AGAINST Obama, and in West VIrginia, 40% voted for A FELON IN A TEXAS JAIL so they didn't have to vote for Obama............

Today was a long day of paperwork for Mom. It got even longer with the Bears, without their QB due to the dirty and illegal hit in the Houston game.

A better punishment for Houston would be to lose the dirty player and your QB until Cutler comes back.

You're a good son, Linc, and that's what good sons do...........

I'd tell you you'll have your reward some day, but I'm afraid if you're an athiest, you might think I'm insulting you!

And it's football Linc, not checkers..........

Injuries are a part of the game................ And that 2.45% number you site is one you get if you ignore the absentee and military ballots, which is what many states do if they deem they won't effect the final result...........

Regardless, the point is made that Obama received a far smaller percentage than he did when he first ran..........